by WorldTribune Staff, July 23, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago was promoted as a “transformative” economic opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses. But several subcontractors have reported falling into financial trouble after working on the center and not being paid, reports say.

One subcontractor who said his company was not paid nearly $4 million for its work on the center has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers, Fox News Digital reported on Thursday.

Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that he was forced to shut down the company to save it from bankruptcy. Not being paid for work done on the Obama library forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs, Owen said.

“Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do,” Owen said. “It’s a hard thing to do, especially when you know you can finish them and the company can still make money. But we were put in a pretty bad corner.”

The project’s construction costs reportedly ballooned from initial estimates of $300 million to $350 million to upwards of $850 million, leading to disputes over change orders and funds needed to cover added scope and rework. Some affected businesses have resorted to filing mechanic’s liens or lawsuits to recover the money they say they are owed.

The main contractor and construction manager for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago is Lakeside Alliance.

The Obama Foundation has stated it has no outstanding disputed charges with Lakeside Alliance. The Foundation maintains it does not hold direct contracts with subcontractors and places the responsibility for hiring, managing, and paying them squarely on Lakeside Alliance. Lakeside Alliance claims that outstanding balances are common for a project of this size and is working to resolve the issues.

Owen said the breaking point came around the time of the center’s opening celebration on June 19.

Owen said Adamson and Lakeside Alliance reached an agreement under which Adamson would provide two journeyman plumbers to perform last-minute “housekeeping” work on campus at premium nighttime rates.

In return, Owen said, Adamson was supposed to receive part of its outstanding payment days before the center opened on June 19. An email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows a Lakeside representative telling Owen that $100,000 would be released through Adamson’s May payment application.

Adamson completed the requested work, but the payment did not arrive on time, according to Owen, who said it was the company’s breaking point and left him with no choice but to suspend operations on June 25.

“We negotiated it in good faith,” he said. “Against my better judgment, I agreed [to do the work].”

“Not getting that large sum of money just kind of pulled the brakes on the train. It was just the final death blow to the company,” he added. “Rather than try to stretch it out and go bankrupt, I just decided the responsible thing was to shut it down. We’ll regroup, and we’ll see where we’re at come September.”

Adamson, which performed its work on the center under the name Marsh-Adamson, has filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the property.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pursue the $3.9 million in change that we lost overall,” Owen said. “I’m still working with my legal team on that $3.9 million figure because I feel that it’s only right that we still hold ownership at the presidential center accountable.”

Owen said the opening ceremony — which featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, John Legend and U2’s Bono and The Edge, among others — only sharpened his anger. Against that celebratory backdrop, he said, the struggles of the workers who built the center went largely unrecognized.

Owen argued that Chicago’s proud protest culture had been conspicuously absent — and that the reaction would have been markedly different if the project were associated with figures such as Elon Musk or Ken Griffin, the Chicago billionaire whose name adorns the neighboring Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

“There would be holy hell to pay,” Owen said. “They would be picketing. They would be storming the castle.”

“The company is one of several subcontractors to report financial trouble after working on the center, which was promoted as a transformative economic opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses,” the Fox News Digital report said.

A previous Fox News Digital investigation identified several subcontractors — including black-owned firms the project was specifically intended to support — that said they were owed money or had absorbed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions.

The largest dispute involves the Concrete Collective, which is seeking more than $40 million in additional payment.

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  Obama library not so ‘transformative’ for minority-owned businesses now facing bankruptcy, WorldTribune.com